California residents are blessed with great weather for growing a variety of fruits and many areas of San Diego County feature large lots with clusters of fruit trees. If you can't keep up with the bounty being produced in your yard, there is a local charitable organization that would love to pick the fruit that would otherwise drop and rot and share it with low income families and seniors. We support them through my REALTOR association and I have been impressed with their work.
The mission of Harvest CROPS, http://www.harvestcrops.org/
in Lemon Grove, is to harvest fruit for the benefit of less fortunate members of our area. It is a straightforward concept. You sign up with them to have your fruit picked. They send out a volunteer team to pick as well as clean up dropped fruit and then they deliver the fruit to agencies such as St. Vincent de Paul, local food pantries and the like. Because they are a registered charity, they provide the fruit donor with a tax deductible receipt for their fruit.
Don't you love a "win-win" situation? The donor gets their fruit trees cleaned up as well as a tax receipt, and the fresh produce is given to those who need it. This is also a great resource if you are preparing to sell a property that has a fruit tree mess.
